On Her Birthday
by SarahShalomDavid
Summary: Maura is found to be crying on her birthday but why? How can she be cheered up?
1. Birthday Tears

The persistent ticking of the analog clock created a continuous white noise to the background of the medical examiner's office. The room was chilled although not as cold as the rest of the floor that it was on. The entire floor cooled to a lower temperature than the rest of the building to allow for the post mortems to be performed and the bodies to be stored appropriately.

The room was decorated with masks from tribes that had once resided in a foreign land, the colors created a warm atmosphere despite the physical temperature of the room. The sofa to the side of the room gave it more of a relaxed atmosphere, which contrasted to the large desk that showed the more professional use of the room.

Outside the rain hammered down on the concrete pavements that led through the city jungle otherwise known as Boston. The sound drowned out many conversations in the building as it pounded upon the glass windows that allowed the workers to see the darkness of the sky above. The clouds were filling the sky with their various shades of grey and black, no streams of sunlight were able to squeeze through any gaps in the dark stormy sky. The sound however was much lower in the basement, with the lack of glass windows and the depth of concrete above and around them it gave the lab protection from the sound.

Behind the desk was a leather office chair, the black color had been polished and the shiny color reflected slightly the lighting that gently filled the room in the form of a red lamp that sat on the desk. The light gave a soft glow that softly brushed over the room in a way that made the room appear more relaxed and welcoming. An intricate cream pattern was painted on the base of the ceramic vase, the red fabric of the top was ruffled and the material made the light have even more warmth with the hint of red in the coloring of the light that emitted from it.

Black louboutin heels with a red underside had been dropped on the floor beside the desk, one lay on it's left side whilst the other sat beside it and upright although leaning ever so slightly on the size of the mahogany desk.

Soft female feet, clad in nude colored stockings were gently brushing the slightly fluffy feel of the carpet beneath her feet and her toes curled now and then to move against the carpet causing ever so slight friction. Her legs were crossed and angled to the right side of her desk. Her chair was pulled in which made her legs covered by the well made and strong wood of the desk. The dark material of her black Vivienne Westwood dress with white patterning on it, where the bottom hem touched her skin just above her knees had slightly ruffled up causing it to be half way up her thighs, revealing more skin than she had originally been showing. Not that it mattered because nobody could see beneath the wooden desk that her lower body was hidden beneath.

On her wrist was a custom made bracelet that was given to her for her 18th birthday by her adoptive mother and it was accompanied by an exquisite Rolex watch, around her neck was a simple diamond necklace that matched the small diamonds that were residing in her ear lobes - the necklace and earrings had been purchased for her by the Italian Detective she worked with at the Boston Police Department in Massachusetts.

Her naturally well structured facial bones and the light brush of beauty products highlighted the beauty that the woman possessed. Many would argue however that the well known medical examiner who was outstanding in her field, did not in fact need the help of any beauty products. The woman however believed she did, it didn't help with beauty but instead with confidence when facing the world.

She was unsure of many social situations and protocol as to those situations. She had faced a lot of bullying as a child and teenager, then comments were made behind her back even as an adult. You would think that by the time people became adults they would be more mature however that was not the case. The medical examiner pretended that it didn't bother her when she wasn't invited out with colleagues, other than Jane of course who gladly invited her with them whenever she could. It did bother her though. She pretended that it didn't bother her when people insinuated that she was creepy because of her job and slight social awkwardness. It did bother her. A lot.

Her honey blonde dyed hair cascaded down the sides of her face and hid her face from the view of anyone who walked past the office and looked through the blinds that partially covered the glass windows that surrounded the room. The highlights in her hair gave more emphasis to the curling of the ends of her hair and fit beautifully with her skin complexion and the color of her eyes.

Her eyes were concealed by the soft palms of her hands, her elbows were propped on top of the desk and upright. Her fingers were pushed together and against her face. Her body shook gently with the force of her tears. Her palms were wet and the salty tears ran down her arms that were revealed by the sleeveless dress that she wore. The sound of her sobs filled the room and the ragged breaths that emitted from the woman.

She had calmed after a while and the only sound she was now emitting was that of slightly off breathing from crying and slight sniffles as she wiped away some of the tears that were still residing on her cheeks. The perimeter of her eyes were slightly raised and were a rather unnatural and bright shade of pink.

Then she heard the sound of heels hitting the floor outside of the office. She knew that sound. She recognised the pattern of the other person's steps. The door then opened before it was closed behind her and the footsteps came closer to her. She knew that she had been caught crying. On her birthday.


	2. Pistachio Cream

Jane's heels made a clicking sound with every step she took on the hard floor of the morgue, the air was cold and she shivered slightly as she pulled her black suit jacket closer around her. She held it closed with her right hand whilst her left continued to hold a white cardboard box by the handle, on the side was a company logo with cursive writing of the French bakery seven blocks away. It was Maura's favourite bakery and it seemed to be a guilty pleasure of the woman. The queue however was always very long and so the only way to get anything from there in their lunch break was to order ahead. This is what Jane had done.

The cake inside was Maura' favourite; chocolate sponge with a pistachio cream filling and topped with a chocolate cream icing. In Green pistachio icing was written the words 'Happy Birthday Maura!' with three kisses below her name. The sides of the cake were covered in many delicate chocolate curls. It had been custom made after Jane ordered it almost two months previously. It was a unique cake that the small business had not yet made before but it was now a cake that had it's photograph in their cake book.

The dark haired Italian Detective smiled at the prospect of giving the birthday cake to the woman she was secretly in love with and was looking forward to seeing the smile spread across the woman's beautiful features and the sparkle appear in her eyes.

She paused a dozen steps away from the closed doors of Maura's office to slide her spare hand into her jacket pocket, she was checking if it was still there. She was checking if the small box was still in the same place that she had left it in along with the envelope. The box was black on the outside and red on the inside. The box contained a piece of diamond jewellery that she had seen Maura looking at in a catalogue a few months previously and Jane had purchased it almost straight away when she realised how much the woman seemed to like it. She had however had it personalised so that it wasn't something as plain as a catalogue purchase because that just wasn't Maura. That just wasn't the woman she was in love with. Maura was unique. Maura was one of a kind. She was her Maura. The box was wrapped only with a red ribbon which was tied neatly into a bow on the top of the jewellery box.

The red ribbon wrapped securely around the box matched the red paper of the envelope that also resided in the same pocket of Detective Rizzoli's work jacket pocket. The envelope that neatly concealed the birthday card that Jane had purchased online and ordered specially for the Medical Examiner's birthday.

Jane Clementine Rizzoli slipped both items back into her pocket and smiled brightly to herself at the concept of making Maura's birthday a great one as she knew that throughout her childhood, her birthday's had not exactly been the best as her parents were much more concerned with their professions rather than their only daughter. It often made Jane wish that she had known Maura back then so that Maura could have had 'Rizzoli-Style' birthdays each and every year. Jane knew that Maura would have loved that and the thought of little Maura smiling brightly in front of a huge cake with lots of candles and many happy people around made her smile.

The Italian woman knew she had been in love with the stunning Isles woman since the moment they met. She remembered the way that the light reflected on Maura's hair, her eyes sparkled slightly as though glitter were in their depths and the melodic nature of her voice. That was before she felt the softness of her skin, loving nature of her embrace and the firm hand that held hers throughout the tough times that they had battled together.

Jane stepped forward and began to walk towards Maura's office. She froze with her spare hand almost touching the door knob that led to Maura's office and frowned as she heard a noise from within that sounded strangely like crying. She twisted the handle quickly and pushed the door open only to be met with the sight of a crying woman at her desk. Maura's head was in her hands whilst her elbows leant on the wooden desk in the room lit only by a small lamp and her body was shaking from the force of her crying.

It was clear that she hadn't heard the Detective entering the morgue or even her office as she continued to sob into her hands with her mascara beginning to leave tracks down her soft, light cheeks. The sight clawed at Jane's heart, it physically hurt her to see Maura in such a negative emotional state. She hated to see Maura upset. If she had it her way then nobody would ever be allowed to upset Maura, her Maur', in any way at all.

Doctor Maura Isles only realised that she had company when she felt Jane's arms wrap around her and pull her close. Jane had carefully placed the cake down on the small table before making her way around the desk to kneel beside the Medical Examiner.

Jane's arms had secured themselves around the woman's body and not only that but they had tugged Maura so close that she had slid into Jane's lap gradually. The honey blonde woman didn't argue with the idea or even resist in the slightest and instead she simply wrapped her arms around Jane's neck, buried her make-up stained face into the Detective's neck and continued to cry.

Gradually she calmed as Jane rocked slightly holding her close and lacing one of her hand through the other woman's honey blonde curls. Detective Rizzoli had been holding her tightly to her and one of her hands continued to stay wrapped tightly around the woman's middle as she pulled back slightly to attempt to look into Maura's eyes.

Doctor Isles buried her face more into the crook of Jane's neck in a way to hide her face or to be more precise to hide what she imagined would be a mess of make-up and tears. She didn't know of course that nothing would stop Jane thinking that she was the most beautiful sight in the world.

"Maur'?", she said softly to the woman in her lap, "Maur'? Look at me". Her voice was soft, caring and patient as she spoke to the upset woman who was currently in a heap in her lap and almost clinging to her.

Maura closed her eyes briefly, there was something about the way that Jane said her name that made her heart swell even though she couldn't find the scientific reasoning behind the feeling it gave her, it gave her comfort in the love she felt for the woman. A love that she had wondered for years if she would ever feel for anyone. She had been so isolated from others as a child and as a teen that the concept of love was something she had for a while only ever read in fairytale books. Instead of showing her face to the other woman, she chose to shake her head lightly in response instead to say that she wouldn't look at her in that moment. Or to be more accurate... she felt that she couldn't in that moment.

"Okay", Jane responded simply but softly, "How about you tell me what's wrong?". Her question was quiet as she almost whispered it into the Doctor's ear, her arm still holding the woman closely to her and her head was resting on Maura's shoulder in the position that they were in. The Detective felt comfortable holding Maura in her arms, to her it was as though she could keep her safe like this and make sure that the woman was okay. She wanted to do something, anything to make sure that the woman who was currently in her arms knew how loved she was, how cared about she was, how beautiful she was and how much she loved her. Jane's eyes closed momentarily as she breathed in, she would give anything to put the smile back onto the woman's face.

The Detective was trying to work out what was wrong but stopped when she heard the soft tones that made up the sound of Maura's voice despite it being almost a whisper. As Maura spoke about her age and how it was expected of her to have children and a husband by now, Jane listened carefully and held her closely to her in order to attempt to comfort her. She was about to interrupt the woman. She was about to say something. She was about to tell her that none of that mattered. That was until Maura spoke one more sentence. A sentence that seemed to shoot through Jane's heart. "...I just want to be loved", she had said broken heartedly before she leant back slightly to look into Jane's eyes, "Is that too much to ask?".

Jane moved her hand from Maura's hair to the soft skin of her cheek, "But you _are_ loved Maur'", she said softly to the Medical Examiner who was remaining in her lap, "I love you".

Maura sighed heavily, "Not like that", she said quietly as she attempted to extract herself from her friend's lap. She of course failed in attempting to move because Jane was refusing to move the arm that was tightly secured around her waist and was effectively trapping the honey blonde in her lap in that moment.

The Medical Examiner began to speak of finding someone who loved her in return, in a more romantic sense of the word and instead of listening carefully as the Detective had done previously, instead she chose to do quite the opposite. She didn't listen at all and instead captured the woman's lips in a searing and very much loving kiss. As she disengaged her lips from that of the medically trained woman who was still partially in her lap, she smiled, "Yes, like that", she said simply, making it clear that she did in fact mean the words 'I love you' when she had spoken them a few minutes previously in a romantic sense as Maura had wanted and had also very much meant them too.

Jane brushed away the tears of the honey blonde woman carefully and pressed a second although chaste kiss to the woman's lips, "I love you", she repeated to her in a loving whisper.

Maura smiled softly, "You love me", she repeated in slight disbelief as her smile began to grow and she leant into the soft touch of her best friend.

"I have always loved you", Jane revealed with a smile and another chaste kiss to her lips, "and always will".

The Medical Examiner smiled and kissed the dark haired Detective lovingly and rather passionately as she thought to herself that this was turning out to be a much better day than she had thought it possibly could be.

"How about we get up from this floor now?", Jane asked softly, "and...".

She didn't get to finish her sentence as Maura's eyes went wide and she began to apologise for their positioning on the floor as she thought that Jane was saying she was uncomfortable.

Jane put her hand up to stop Maura's small speech and apology, "I was just going to say so we can eat cake", she said indicating to the cake that she had left on the table.

Maura indeed did love her cake, she even loved the minor food fight that they ended up having with some pistachio cream and she also loved the diamond necklace that her best friend had purchased for her as well as the card with the opera tickets hidden inside but most of all the part of her birthday that she considered to be the best was curling up to Jane that night in her warm embrace as the dark haired woman whispered the words 'I love you' before they fell asleep together.


End file.
